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Month: January 2013

Why 90’s music? Considering that I just heard some 80’s music on an “oldies” station not so long ago, and I was only listening to said “oldies” station because I get so bored with today’s music, I figured I’d make an attempt to give 90’s music its due before it officially becomes old.

Maybe it is a bit too early to wax nostalgic on this decade, but maybe it isn’t. To be clear, this is not a countdown of my favorite songs in a particular order, but rather it’s a retrospective of the decade, a taste of what music was like in those days, for better or worse.

Long before we had boys heading their One Direction, there were some New Kids on the Block. Rihanna may have found love in a hopeless place, but once upon a time Mariah Carey was dreaming of her Dreamlover. And then there is that big meat-wearing, chart-topping, little monster-courting, Lady Gaga and her occasional tendency to spout French sweet nothings while describing her Bad Romance. But I remember a certain other lady at the dawn of the 90’s, who enchanted our ears with some faux-French, and it wasn’t the territorial Madonna.

I am of course speaking of Lady Miss Kier from the group Deee-Lite. In the late summer of 1990, a certain dance-pop track with “house” origins began hopping around the charts.

#90: “Groove Is in the Heart”, the first song to be showcased on this countdown, was a one hit wonder kind of thing for Deee-Lite. The song itself sampled heavily from other artists, but that’s probably why it has remained such a unique song over the years. It also proved to be a hard act to follow, as Deee-Lite disbanded in ’96 without another major hit to their name. The funky quality of the song, the infectious percussion, and the highly crafted mixing that only club DJ’s can offer make this song timeless.

The highly stylized costuming and effects in the video also set it apart from the other songs of its time. As dated as it may look to modern eyes, the difficulty lies in *when* one would try to date it. Lady Miss Kier and her fellow band mates look like extras from the super-swinging-sixties set of The Avengers. True to its house music roots, this song is a staple in the dance music and club scene, so maybe it will never really get “old”, but here’s hoping it has a de-groovy, de-gorgeous couple more decades.

Unfortunately, the quality of this video is, as the poster put it, “shitty” due to legal stuff that prohibit a decent version from appearing on Youtube. However, if you can stand the myopic fuzziness, enjoy the video by following the link:

Some blogs share recipes. Others provide healthy living advice and there are those that break the mold and become a sensation. I don’t know what kind this one will be, but when it’s 21 years old I will take it out for drinks and flirt with its friends. I decided to kick off this particular blog in a big way with a review of a rather behemoth phenomenon that I must have done a great job of ignoring while it was on the air.

Due to several years without cable during the first decade of the new millennium (when you live on your own, TV becomes a sacrifice one makes in favor of other joys. Like internet access, coffee, and wine), I did much of my TV-watching via DVD or Netflix. Because of this there were a few sensations I missed. One of them was indeed “Lost”.

There will be spoilers. Stop reading now if you have plans on subjecting yourself to this series.

The premise of Lost is that several strangers must band together on an uncharted island to survive the wilderness around them. Everyone has a secret and everyone is afraid of dying because it turns out that this island is haunted, or possessed, or something like that because creepy things keep happening.

Sound interesting? Sound like the bastard child of Gilligan’s Island and Twin Peaks?

What I can tell you is that now that I am done watching Lost, I feel like I just escaped an abusive relationship. Lost was a kidnapper, it took me away and brainwashed me, and I became its abject adorer like anyone suffering from Stockholm Syndrome would. There were times when I knew I had to get out, but I kept going back for more, hoping it would reward my loyalty by treating me better. Despite all of that I don’t really hate the show. Not all of it anyway…

The first two seasons were great. I was digging the flashbacks that provided thematic resonance to the plots and characters. The third season got a bit stale. I felt like I was due some answers but all I got were more questions. The fourth season was where I began to get scared. I was happy that flashbacks were finished because three seasons had better be enough to flesh out back stories, but flash forwards? Really? Ugh… okay, but then came season 5. It didn’t have flash anything, it had all out time traveling. THEN, in season 6 we were introduced to the flash-sideways. By this time that was the only direction left to flash, but it was really just a big red herring and you find out in the final episode the truth behind Lost.

The essential truth behind the mysteries of Lost is in fact this: The writers are amazing at setting up mysteries but they are terrible at climaxing them(performance anxiety?). Stay tuned to following posts for a season by season review of things I actually liked.